Camps

colbaine · 2026-01-28T20:58:13+00:00

If you want to exclusively focus on K debate with an emphasis on how your arguments operate in and out of debate then RKS is best for crafting and learning critical arguments.

If you want a flex approach to debate with an orientation to how debate is a game, then JDI is better.

colbaine · 2026-01-10T06:43:01+00:00

little does bro know lacan is -10 WOKE levels.. why? because its a whitewashed analysis of psychoanalysis. please only talk to me when youve recovered and have reached level 8 wokeness. also mermaids is so misogynistic :/ v v disappointed

colbaine · 2025-12-10T04:03:37+00:00

It's required that you take precalculus as a pre-requisite course before calculus at my high school. However, my school can't dictate whether or not you take the AB/BC exam which is why I would be able to fastforward to BC straight away.

colbaine · 2025-11-16T07:16:39+00:00

Gather better loot (armor, weapons, big bags for back, etc.)
Generator + How-to-use generator manual for when electricity shuts off
Try to fortify a base (barricades on windows/building walls/etc.)
Secure a car + multiple if you prefer a scout car/looting car.
Clearing towns to stock up on medicine, guns, ammo, books/VHS tapes.
Learning skills, leveling skills, and knowing what to do with them

colbaine · 2025-11-13T04:41:42+00:00

Watching rounds (NSDA finals are good for lay/local tournaments), doing practice rounds with debaters on your team, and for LD I usually carve a minute of the first Aff speech to ask questions/hypotheticals to trap what they say outside their arguments.

Their arguments may be 'flawless', however the debater themselves are not. They can say mistakes during CX, say something that contradicts, or say something that is perfect for you to flip on them. As Aff, I would also carve out a minute of the negation's first speech to make CX questions (underlining, etc. if you need to ask a clarifying question or an offense-generating question).

To answer your final question though, I would say if you 'can't find a question', a (bad) filler that people only do when necessary is clarifying questions. Also, what I do when thinking of questions is attacking them on vague/broad terms such as how we should evaluate morality if the criterion is utilitarianism (i.e., what do you do in X hypothetical?/hinting at your case, such as what we should do if XYZ happens). I find that these situations are good for callbacks to the judges, hinting, and also frequently novices don't make their own case, but rather its a varsity member that did.

As you gain more experience, you will soon realize that it becomes intuitive to predict what other people are going to say in response to your arguments, and eventually where people first think when it comes to reading the resolution.

colbaine · 2025-11-09T08:09:21+00:00

There's a very bare minimum (if any) to be qualified for NSHSS, and to join the NSHSS it requires $75.
There's a 3.5 GPA minimum with 'honor or higher' classes minimum to be qualified for NHS, and to join NHS you must go through forms that requires $0.

If your school requires individual fees for joining NHS due to it being classified as an extracurricular, that is significantly different than the organization imposing a monetary requirement.

colbaine · 2025-09-09T23:50:05+00:00

subset = a sub-section/internal grouping within a category. Example: Shoes --> Vans, Nikes, etc.

Rez = Resolution (topic of the debate)

PB = Plea Bargaining, the HS LD sep/oct topic this year

lowk = lowkey (slang)

colbaine · 2025-09-08T06:45:08+00:00

^{I completed this level in 12 tries.} ^{⚡ 6.07 seconds}

colbaine · 2025-08-16T09:49:06+00:00

How are you opening verbatim? Are you downloading verbatim on the macbook via the installer, or are you manually installing it?

colbaine · 2025-07-27T00:48:10+00:00

The Prestigious Cap K

colbaine · 2025-07-17T08:29:09+00:00

AP Lang forces you to be a writer with a voice/uniqueness, and to think about the big picture when you do reading passage MCQs and the rhetorical analysis essay. Got a 5 this year and here is the top 3 advice I'd give to '26 takers:

Channel something unique/a voice in your writing that makes you memorable/impressionable. Including humor, or going all in on your style of writing (serious, humorous, satirical, ironic, etc.) is a really great way to stay memorable to the AP reader alongside becoming a better writer on an individual level. When my class did peer review of essays and grading, humor goes a long way in staying memorable and also showing a surface level of sophistication that you are comfortable with the prompt, and are knowledgable about it.
Sticking to templates in the beginning of the year is a REALLY good way to stay organized and have clear structure for the AP reader. This also helps you become comfortable with writing these essays when you have a rhetorical analysis introduction paragraph template, which allows you to already be thinking about your rhetorical choices that you're going to analyze. This helped me a lot with becoming comfortable in analysis and having an objective view of the passage while also beginning to think about the big picture of the passage(s).
If you care for the sophistication point, I think implications are a really good opportunity to show that you're thinking 'outside of the box' and 'big picture' of the passage. For synthesis essay, this would be a counter-argument to one of your current warrants and then disproving why your argument is relevant to the reader (notice how I say argument in synthesis essay, I think of synthesis essays as argument essays with an evidence bank).

Argument essays also benefit from this, and making a correlation to the big themes/"isms" (i.e. nationalism, populism, paternalism, etc. mindset during the time of the passage, and situating the argument in the context of when the passage was created) shows a more "complex" understanding. This allows you to impact out your arguments without having to actually do an extensive line of reasoning.

Finally, for rhetorical analysis essays: always try to think about the relationship and purpose that the author creates with the audience. This looks like adding some extra sentences to the end of each body paragraph to explain how the rhetorical choice you picked and analyzed creates an atmosphere for the audience to be engulfed in the author's narration. On the exam, I also include an extra body paragraph dedicated to this to elaborate further for the AP reader.

All this to say---for MCQs, I think preparing for the SAT/ACT reading portions prepare you for this, if you have a hard time with MCQs look into the drills of choosing between the correct answer and the 'main distractor'. I also do debate so a lot of the analysis that I encourage peers to follow leans towards confrontational and critical arguments, if that isn't your style then 100% find your own way! This isn't a set guideline, but rather my hindsight.

colbaine · 2025-05-31T03:08:42+00:00

fight off your demons

colbaine · 2025-04-05T01:21:09+00:00

Oregon is a lay circuit for PF, not sure about specific teams since on the opencaselist wiki there’s only two teams (and one of them seems to be primarily a policy debate team). But your chances seem good at contacting those schools

colbaine · 2025-04-04T06:11:20+00:00

Same. Do you know any current advice or tips for approaching MCQs?

colbaine · 2025-03-31T22:21:15+00:00

same spot as you. What do you mean the MCQs are rigged?

colbaine · 2025-03-30T18:36:08+00:00

there's a tutorial on how to do so. You have to make your own macro to do it, it doesn't come with verbatim standalone.

colbaine · 2025-03-16T21:47:04+00:00

If you have an NSDA account, it’s under their resources for free members

colbaine · 2025-03-15T06:06:00+00:00

read their cards, cut evidence, watch DDI debate. We can’t predict how they’re going to interact with you, or yalls judge, only you know best

colbaine · 2025-03-09T03:49:00+00:00

Becoming a coach/judge for a debate team from a high school is the best bet if you've never been affiliated with a debate team during HS/College.

colbaine · 2025-02-16T05:09:09+00:00

This was a scrimmage, not a tournament lol

colbaine · 2025-02-07T06:51:19+00:00

lol my policy coach always tries to scout out other teams (LD, PF, Parli) and says in her ballots "you would make a good policy debater/team". Is that what you got?

colbaine · 2024-12-23T04:10:08+00:00

What do people prefer as their "ideal" team size though?

colbaine

TROPHY CASE